State Department approves arms sales

OPTIMISM While State and the Congress still have to work out the details, sources said both sides were upbeat that an official sales notification would come within days

By Charles Snyder / STAFF REPORTER IN WASHINGTON

In a surprise turnaround, the US State Department told Congress on Thursday it had approved the sale of six major packages of weaponry to Taiwan and planned to send an official notification that would all but assure the sales would go through this year.

The action effectively ended the freeze on arms sales to Taiwan that the administration of US President George W. Bush imposed nearly a year ago.

In a hastily called meeting with congressional staffers of the committees involved in the arms sales, State Department officials gave the committees a “draft notification,” which covered six of the eight weapons systems that Taiwan asked for.

Although no final decision was reached at the meeting, sources involved in the talks said further work was planned yesterday.

It was not clear when final actions and official notifications would be made. But the general feeling is both sides will be able to work out the details shortly, allowing the official notification to come within days, and the sales to proceed.

“There are six cases before Congress in the pre-consultation phase, and the executive branch is hoping that we will be able to clear them expeditiously,” one congressional staffer involved in the talks said.

Underlining his optimism, the source said that “congressional support for the legitimate defense needs of Taiwan has been demonstrated over the years.”

Earlier in the day, congressional sources said that if no objections against the sale were raised and the two preliminary procedures were waived, it was “conceivable” that the official notification would get to Congress yesterday.

If no congressperson raised an objection, approval could be almost instantaneous. That would allow US and Taiwanese officials to negotiate the final deal in time to capture the appropriations for the weapons systems approved by the Legislative Yuan late last year.

Although the sources did not identify any snags that might arise to delay the sales, State Department officials were expected to face some tough questions.

“The staff has a lot of questions about the process by which we came to this juncture,” one staffer close to the issue said.

“We have a lot of questions as to why the administration refused to brief us on their evolving arms sales policy toward Taiwan until now,” the staffer said.

“So, for starters, we have those issues to get past, and whether or not there are any technical issues with respect to any of the proposed notifications that require some degree of due diligence on our part and responsiveness on the part of state and DOD [the US Department of Defense],” the source said.